- 8 oct 2010
Report: “Two Palestinians Killed, Ten Wounded During Israeli Invasion In Hebron”
Palestinian medical sources in the southern West Bank city of Hebron reported, Friday morning, that two Palestinians were killed and ten others were wounded after the army invaded the city, surrounded a house of a resistance fighter and fired mortars at it.
Shortly after midnight, at least 40 military vehicles and armored bulldozers invaded Jawhar Mountain in Hebron while several army choppers fired flares. Troops then surrounded a three-story home and started demolishing it.
Local sources reported that the surrounded building is owned by Radwan Rajabi, Saadi Borqan and Ayyoub Gheith.
According to the military, resistance fighters barricaded themselves in the building and refused to surrender. Soldiers also surrounded nearby houses and used loud speakers to order the residents out.
Later on, soldiers opened automatic fire at the buildings, fired several mortars. and also demolished walls surrounding three other homes.
Media sources in Hebron reported that the army believe gunmen who killed four settlers in August were the main target of the invasion.
In addition, soldiers kidnapped at least 10 Palestinians that they believed were involved in attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers, a military spokesperson said.
Eyewitnesses said that one body was seen on the ground and that the army confiscated cameras and tapes from reporters who arrived at the scene.
Although current reports indicate that two Palestinians were killed in the attack, only one death was confirmed, as the army is still surrounding the area and keeping the media away.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59567
Witnesses: 2 killed in Hebron army raid
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinians were killed overnight in Hebron during an Israeli army raid in the Jabal Johar village, witnesses told Ma'an.
Witnesses said they believed one of the killed was an important factional leader from the village's Abu Sneineh neighborhood and that he may have been "wanted" by Israel.
The identities of the two killed have yet to be released. Witnesses further said Israeli troops raided the area and confiscated cameras from journalists at the scene.
Israeli forces imposed a curfew on the southern West Bank district as the raid remains ongoing amid gunfire.
Locals said troops surrounded three homes belonging to Radwan Ar-Rajabi, Saadi Barwan and Ayoub Gheith, demolishing the fence surrounding the houses.
Israeli bulldozers were seen demolishing a three-story home in search of "wanted" Palestinians in hiding, witnesses said.
Forces also detained Ayoub Ismael Ar-Rajabi, 28, and Mus'ab Al-Atrash, witnesses said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that there was ongoing military activity in Hebron and that it would continue to update on the situation.
Meanwhile, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the two killed where Hamas affiliates who were wanted for their involvement in attacks against Israelis.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=321984
Palestinians: 2 dead in IDF op in Hebron
sraeli troops surround building harboring suspected members of Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Ensuing clash leaves two Palestinian fatalities.
Palestinian sources reported Friday that two Palestinians, believed to be members of Hamas military wing, were killed in a clash with IDF forces.
The IDF confirmed that a unit has been operating in the West Bank city of Hebron since the early hours of the morning.
According to initial details, the operation began around 2 am. The troops are reportedly surrounding a building harboring members of Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
The IDF confirmed that gunfire has erupted in area; no injuries have been reported among the troops.
The operation follows a string of terror act in the West Bank which left fours Israelis dead and several wounded.
The Palestinian Authority announced it had apprehended six of the perpetrators about one week after the attacks, but according to the IDF, it is unclear whether all of them have been captured.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3966270,00.html
Israeli troops 'kill two Palestinians'
At least two Palestinians have reportedly been killed in another Israeli attack against the occupied West Bank, witnesses say.
The Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces invaded the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) late on Thursday, Press TV correspondent Sari al-Khalili reported on Friday.
The Israeli troops have imposed a strict closure on the city since midnight and demolished at least one house where Palestinian fighters have taken a refuge.
The Israeli regime has a garrison in al-Khalil to protect Israeli settlers in the city.
Tel Aviv also has set up hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank to hinder the move of Palestinians.
The international community regards Israel's occupation of the West Bank as illegal.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/145741.html 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 8 oct 2010
Ma'moun Taysir Yasin Natsheh, 25Nashat Na'im al-Karmi, 33
Ma'moun Taysir Yasin Natsheh, 25 and Nashat Na'im al-Karmi, 33,
28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 8 oct 2010
Hania Odeh
A Palestinian woman died due to settler attack of two weeks ago in Silwan
Friday morning a women in her fifties, Hania Odeh, died from a stress induced heart attack sustained two weeks ago in Jerusalem.
Ma'an News Agency correspondent in Jerusalem reported that this women was injured last September 22, when an Israeli settler opened fire in the direction of some residents in Silwan, killing Samer Sarhan and injuring three other civilians.
Mrs. Odeh suffered a severe heart attack when she saw her son-in-law lying dead on the ground. She was moved to the hospital and passed away on Friday morning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59571 28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 13 oct 2011
Ten years later, no justice for October 2000 killings
Palestinians in Israel protest the Israeli Attorney General’s decision to not seek indictments of police officers involved in the October 2000 killings, January 2008. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
It has been ten years since 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by the Israeli police force during nonviolent demonstrations at the outset of the second Palestinian intifada.
And while the victims’ families haven’t stopped demanding accountability and justice for their loved ones, a frightening realization is taking shape: in today’s Israel, what happened in October 2000 could easily happen again, if not worse.
“After this, everything is possible. The worst happened and after that it can only be worse,” said Mohammad Zeidan, the General Director of The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), based in Nazareth.
“There are a million reasons for an explosion concerning the racism and discrimination against the Palestinian minority [in Israel]. It just needs a small spark. And if that happens, we feel that the general political environment is worse than it used to be in 2000. It will be much worse than in 2000,” Zeidan said.
Unarmed demonstrators killed
At the end of September 2000, months before he was elected Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon made his infamous visit to occupied East Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif, accompanied on all sides by Israeli security forces.
This inflammatory move sparked the already-growing unrest in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians took to the streets in what became the start of the second Palestinian intifada.
Days later, on 1 October 2000, the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel announced a general strike and mass demonstrations were organized in many Arab towns inside Israel to show support for the Palestinians in the occupied territories. These protests were met with extreme violence on the part of the Israeli police force.
Rubber-coated steel bullets, live ammunition and tear gas were used unsparingly on the demonstrators, while Israeli snipers were also set up in various cities.
Three young men
1- Mohammed Ahmed Jabareen (23),
2- Ahmed Ibrahim Siyyam Jabareen (18)
3- Rami Khatem Ghara (21)
were killed on that first day of demonstrations.
As a result of these killings, the High Follow-Up Committee extended the strike, and demonstrations continued. These too were met with violent police repression, and over the course of eight days, a total of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel, between the ages of 17 and 42, had been killed. A Palestinian resident of the occupied Gaza Strip was also killed.
“The general feeling was that all the red lines were broken [in October 2000] and that the deterioration was very fast. The very scary part of this was that at the official level of the Jewish majority there wasn’t any kind of reaction to stop the deterioration and the killings that were happening in the streets,” Zeidan said.
No accountability
Thousands of Palestinians were injured and hundreds were subsequently detained or arrested in relation to the events that took place in October 2000.
A month later, in November 2000, the Israeli government set up a fact-finding team, the Or Commission, to look into what happened. Its findings were released in September 2003;
the Or Commission found that the Israeli police illegally used rubber-coated bullets, live ammunition and snipers to disperse demonstrators, refuted the police’s claim that it had acted in self-defense and recommended that criminal investigations be opened for each of the deaths.
Two years later, in September 2005, the Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigations Department, known as Mahash, released its own report, stating that it wouldn’t indict any Israeli police officer in relation to the violence.
This decision was met with gross indignation on the part of Palestinian citizens of Israel and faced large-scale public criticism.
As a result, then-Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz launched his own investigation into Mahash’s decision, and in January 2008, Mazuz endorsed Mahash’s position that there was no reason to convict members of the Israeli police, who he argued had acted in self-defense against the demonstrators.
“[The Attorney General] closed the file on the argument that the Arab demonstrators almost used arms and they closed streets, and that in this situation, the police felt that they were in danger. In fact, he blamed the victims,” said Hassan Jabareen, the Founder and Director General of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and the lead lawyer for the October 2000 victims’ families.
“But if we want to analyze [Mazuz's] rhetoric, we find that he treated the demonstrators not as civilians, but as combatants. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Palestinian civilian or Palestinian combatant, whether you are citizen or resident or non-resident, your ethnicity is the matter. The Attorney General treats them [Palestinians] as enemies,” Jabareen said.
“It shows that the impunity here is very, very strong for the police.”
A deteriorating situation
In an April 2001 report looking into the behavior of Israeli police officers during the violence, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) described Israel’s law enforcement systems as being “tainted by institutionalized racism.”
“During the events of September-October 2000, this was reflected in ugly and widespread manifestations of violence and humiliation. Yet this racism is also reflected in less overt ways in legislation, regulations and procedures that effectively discriminate against these citizens,” the report, titled “Racism, Violence and Humiliation,” stated.
The report added, “Official spokespeople for the State of Israel often describe the country as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East,’ and as a member of the family of progressive and enlightened nations. The behavior of agents of the state — security force personnel and other authorities — towards its Palestinian citizens threatens to render such declarations hollow and meaningless.”
Indeed, according to Hassan Jabareen, the situation for Palestinian citizens of Israel is getting worse by the day.
“They are facing, more than in any other situation, direct racist policy and this racist policy justifies using violence against them. It seems that the situation is going towards escalation,” Jabareen said.
Mohammad Zeidan agreed, explaining that recent proposals and laws passed by the Israeli Knesset signal increasing hostility towards the country’s Palestinian minority, which makes up nearly twenty percent of the Israeli population.
“We see that the whole notion of a Jewish state is being legalized in different laws and proposals, and that creates an environment that delegitimizes our existence as citizens. This environment is the right environment for such attacks and such violence again the Palestinian minority,” Zeidan said.
He added, “Without international actual action towards the situation, nothing will be moving in Israel. I think the situation will be deteriorating more and more and that it will be much harder to speak about solutions in the future.”
Currently, Adalah is appealing to Israel’s new Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, to re-open investigations into the October 2000 killings.
More specifically, Adalah is asking Weinstein to look into the evidence collected against police officers involved in the killings, as well as to examine the work and procedures used by the Mahash and former Attorney General Menachem Mazuz during their separate investigations into what happened ten years ago.
“The families will continue to struggle,” said Hassan Jabareen. “Our demand today from the new Attorney General is to open the file and renew the criminal investigation. This is our demand right now.”
Originally from Montreal, Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a freelance writer and documentary filmmaker based in occupied East Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jilldamours.wordpress.com.
http://fwd4.me/0ioV
28 apr 2012, 23:00 , Respect -
Maria 13 oct 2010
Samir Tahseen Al-Nadeem, 26
Samir Tahseen Al-Nadeem died after waiting 35 days for an exit permit for treatment for his heart condition. He was 26
The medicines he needed could not get in. But the coffins do.
The health ministry now lists 375 deaths due to shortage of life-saving medicines. The medicines sit just outside the borders of the territory until most pass their expiry dates. But there are no expiry dates on about 10,000 coffins that have been donated for Gaza. The coffins do make it to those that eventually need them.
By the end of last month more than 70 percent of medicines donated for Gaza had been dumped because they were past their expiry date, the health ministry says. They were worth many millions of dollars. And they were worth many lives.
"Much of the donated medicines came from Arab states," Dr Mounir Al- Boursh, director of the pharmaceutical department at the health ministry tells IPS. This added up to 10,300 tonnes of medicines worth 25 million dollars, he said.
Only about 30 percent of this could be used, he said; the rest either expired, or was inaccessible because of restricted distribution by the Israelis, who control what gets into Gaza.
It's not easy to dump medicines safely either. Much of unused supply mixes with domestic waste, creating health hazards far from bringing relief. The World Health Organisation has had to "raise concern about the unsafe disposal of expired medication and other medical disposable material," WHO spokesperson told IPS.
But the Gaza ministry has received 10,000 coffins, about 1,000 of them for children, Dr Boursh said. Such help, he said, "does not meet with the needs of the Gaza Strip."
What Gaza needs is 110 types of medicines and 123 types of medical equipment that the ministry has listed. Gaza is expected to run out of more medicines over the next few months. The announced ease in the blockade of Gaza has not currently brought more supplies.
The medicines now under threat are for childcare, in the maternity departments, and for conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, haemophilia and thalassemia.
"Death has become routine," says a young woman from Jabaliya in the north of Gaza Strip as she waits in the corridor at the Al-Nasser Children's Hospital in Gaza City. Next to her, the parents of two-year-old Israa Tabsh are struggling to save the child, born with a heart defect.
"We have been waiting for weeks for permission to leave Gaza for the cardiac sugery she needs," says the child's father, Fayez Al-Tabsh. The treatment is available at the Al-Maqased hospital in East Jerusalem, but Tabsh can't get there.
The family, like others such, first needs an exit permit, and then a financial guarantees statement that all expenses would be met by the health ministry in the West Bank, which is under the control of the Fatah-led administration, unlike the Hamas government in Gaza.
That guarantee is near impossible for most patients. "You need connections," says a 53-year-old mother waiting for a guarantee for her son. "We are caught between corrupt officials and death."
Patients in Gaza depend on the West Bank government both for permits and for many needed medicines. In 2010 Gaza have received only 22 percent of the medicines it needed from the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank, Boursh said. Supplies are declining. "In 2008 we had received 50 percent, and in 2009, 49 percent."
The medicines that come in, and in time, are not easy to preserve. At the old Al-Ghifari medical storage in Gaza City, the facility leaks fluids. "It's the rats," says a caretaker. "They get to the fluid bags, causing the leakages. The rats get the medicines, the patients the coffins."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53144 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 16 oct 2010
Nasma Abu Lasheen, 2
Toddler Killed by Blockade of Gaza
Nasma Abu Lasheen died on Saturday, October 16, 2010 in Gaza after Israel failed to issue her an urgent entry permit for life-saving medical treatment at Ha-Emek Medical Center in Afula, Israel. She was two years old.
Abu Lasheen, a young resident of Gaza diagnosed with Leukemia was referred for emergency treatment in Israel on October 6, 2010. When requests to the Israeli Army for an entry permit went unanswered for several days, the family contacted Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-Israel) for additional help. The very same day, on October 13, 2010, PHR-Israel contacted the Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO) demanding a permit be issued immediately to the baby and her father to enable their entry into Israel. A military approval was finally granted the next afternoon, on October 14, 2010.
Abu Lasheen's medical condition began deteriorating rapidly and by the time the permit was received, the treating doctor in Gaza, Dr. Mohammad Abu Sha'aban, said she was too sick to travel. Nasma died in the early morning hours of October 16th.
PHR-Israel has lodged a complaint with the head of the Israeli DCO demanding an immediate inquiry into those responsible for the delayed response.
Abu Lasheen's death comes just days after PHR-Israel testified to the Israeli Turkel Commission investigating the Flotilla incident, on the humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's closure policy. In their October 13th testimony, PHR- Israel pointed to the rising numbers of Gaza patients denied exit for treatment in hospitals outside the Strip, a phenomenon that has intensified since Israel's closure policy worsened in June 2007. For patients, a delayed or denied permit could mean the difference between quality of life and preventable pain and suffering, and in some cases, even the difference between life and death, as demonstrated by the Abu Lasheem case.
PHR- Israel calls on the Israeli authorities at Erez Crossing to investigate those responsible for the delays involved in Nasma Abu Lasheen's case. PHR- Israel reiterates its demand that Israel fulfill its obligations vis-à-vis the residents of Gaza by ensuring them full and timely access to medical treatment not available in the Gaza Strip.
http://bit.ly/cHsWEG 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 17 oct 2010
Muhammad Jaber Ibrahim Washah 20Muhammad Hisham Zaqout, 22
Muhammad Jaber resident of a-Shati' Camp, Gaza district, killed in Gaza city, by a missile fired from a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Killed, with another armed man, by missile fire.
Palestinian Dies of Wounds Sustained in October 7th Israeli Airstrike
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza that killed one Palestinian and wounded five has claimed a second victim, as 22-year-old Muhammad Hisham Zaqout succumbed to his wounds in a Gaza City hospital on Sunday.
The October 7th airstrike was one of a series targeting alleged members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. The Israeli use of airstrikes to assassinate targeted Palestinians has been widely condemned by the international community and the United Nations, but Israeli authorities continue to utilize the method to assassinate 'wanted' Palestinians, usually with civilian casualties as a result.
The other Palestinian who died in the Oct. 7th strikes was Mahmoud Jabir Washah, 21, who was hit during an airstrike in the As-Sudaniyya neighborhood of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip.
According to an Israeli military spokesperson, at the time of the airstrikes the military was targeting Ahmad Al-Ashkar, a Palestinian fighter allegedly associated with the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Al-Ashkar was not hit in the attack.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59654 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 24 oct 2010
JCSER: Israel stepped up its crimes, killed three Jerusalemites last month
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Jerusalem center for social and economic rights (JCSER) said in its monthly report that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) stepped up its violations against the Jerusalemites' political, social and religious rights and killed three of them including an infant during September.
In a report issued Saturday, JCSER said that two Palestinian young men were shot dead by settlers' armed guards in Al-Thawri and Silwan neighborhoods in occupied Jerusalem, while a little baby died after he inhaled tear gas used by Israeli troops to target Palestinian homes in Issawiya district. The child could have lived if the troops had not obstructed his transfer to hospital.
The troops also prevented during their attack on Issawiya district this month other wounded Palestinians from being transferred to hospital after they blocked the way of ambulances as happened with a Palestinian lady who was hit in her face with a stun grenade.
The report asserted that these killings happened simultaneously with widespread arrest campaigns that led to the kidnapping of 25 Palestinian young men and children from different areas in Jerusalem during the protests that were triggered by the settlers' provocative acts.
About 40 Palestinians suffered either tear gas suffocation or sustained injuries from rubber coated bullets over three days of clashes with Israeli troops in the holy city.
The IOA imposed severe restrictions on the entry of worshipers to the Aqsa Mosque on 24 of the same month and allowed in only those who are over 50 years. It also intensified its settlement activities, seized more Palestinian lands and declared plans to build more than 12, 000 settlement units throughout Jerusalem.
The Israeli authority of nature and gardens, for its part, razed hundreds of lands belonging to Palestinian citizens in Al-Tur neighborhood, east of the old city in Jerusalem.
The IOA closed Shu'fat refugee camp and placed concrete blocks besides the military checkpoint at the camp's entrance. It also demolished or issued demolition orders against dozens of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, according to the report.
In a related context, the Palestinian center for human rights said in a report covering the Israeli violations from 14 to 20 October that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed two Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza and wounded three civilians, two of them in the Strip and one in the West Bank.
Its report also stated that dozens of Palestinians and multinational activists suffered from dizzy spells or suffocated after they inhaled tear gas, and many of them sustained injuries after Israeli troops attacked their peaceful marches they organize weekly in the West Bank.
The center added that the IOF troops carried out about 39 military incursions in most of the West Bank cities, villages and refugee camps, during which they kidnapped seven Palestinian civilians including Hamas lawmaker Hatem Kafisha.
It pointed out that the IOF troops deliberately maltreated and terrorized Palestinian civilians during violent raids on their homes.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian young man called Mohamed Al-Beitouni was seriously wounded after he was attacked by a gang of savage Israeli settlers from Ramot settlement, west of Jerusalem.
Local sources said that 10 armed settlers attacked Beitouni with bottles and stones and embarked on beating him severely before fleeing the scene. He was taken to Hadassah hospital in Issawiya district for treatment.
The Hebrew radio for its part said on Saturday that Israeli border guards detained two Jerusalemite citizens on suspicion of attacking an Israeli settler in the old city of Jerusalem.
http://bit.ly/cdImoA 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 27 oct 2010
Mahmoud al-'Amour,17
Israeli Police Car Kills Palestinian Child
Israeli sources reported that on Tuesday night, a Palestinian boy from the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, was killed by an Israeli police car that ran over him in the town of Ashdod, in the southern part of Israel.
The source reported that the boy attempted to cross the road, which has no crosswalk, and the police driver could not avoid the pedestrian. The boy died instantly.
Palestinian sources reported that the boy was identified as Mahmoud al-'Amour,17 years old, from Yatta. His body was sent to the Abu Kabir Forensic Medical Institute.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59762 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 27 oct 2010
Jihad 'Afana, 20
Israeli Army Kills a Palestinian Citizen and Injures Three in Gaza
On Wednesday afternoon, a Palestinian man was killed by shrapnel fragments from an exploded artillery shell fired by Israeli tanks stationed in the town of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources at Kamal 'Adwan Hospital reported to the WAFA Palestine News Agency, that the citizen was identified as Jihad 'Afana, 20, who was transferred to the hospital following extensive injuries throughout his body from fragments of the exploded shell.
The source added that another two citizens from the town of Beit Hanoun arrived at the hospital after being injured with shrapnel shells. A worker who was injured by Israeli troops positioned in military towers near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, was also injured while he was collecting ballasts.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59764
Jihad Subhi Taha 'Afaneh 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 31 oct 2010
Daily shootings in Gaza's border zone
UMM AN-NASSER, Gaza (Ma'an) -- A string of shootings of Palestinian workers, many of them only teenagers, in the northern Gaza Strip has brought renewed attention to a live-fire exclusion zone imposed by Israel on the Gaza side of the Green Line.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon removed settlers and most soldiers from Gaza in 2005, but Israeli forces still patrol the buffer zone, a swath of Palestinian territory along Gaza's northern and eastern borders.
Many of those injured are desperately poor Palestinian workers who venture into the exclusion zone to gather gravel and other construction scrap from what remains of the former Israeli settlements in the north.
Defense for Children International documented 14 cases between March and October of this year of Palestinian youths under the age of 18 who were shot by Israeli forces while collecting gravel in the border zone.
While a few of these teens were shot as close as 50 meters from the border, others were 500, 600, even 800 meters from the border when the shooting occurred. The youngest of these children was 13, the oldest 17.
Twenty-five Palestinian civilians have been killed in the border area since the end of Israel's three-week offensive on Gaza in January 2009.
Every day the workers set out to the abandoned settlements of Nissanit, Elli Sinai, and Dugit, using donkey carts to haul sacks of small stones and gravel. These aggregates, used in construction, are among the items banned from Gaza by Israel, creating what one UN report called a "lucrative but dangerous market" based on recycling such materials.
Many of the workers who collect this scrap live in the town of Umm An-Nasser, known in Gaza as the Bedouin Village, a community of about 5,000 people on the edge of Beit Lahiya.
Sitting under a tent on the edge of the buffer zone, Israeli watchtowers in the distance, Fadi Abu Hashish, 26, says he does this dangerous, backbreaking labor simply because "there's no other work."
Abu Hashish said since he's been old enough to work, the border with Israel has been sealed. His father and grandfather, he said, used to work picking citrus and vegetables across the border in the city of Ashdod, but because of Israel's closure of Gaza, these jobs are simply no longer an option.
Abu Hashish and other workers explained that once they collect the stones from the settlements they wash them, crush them into smaller parts, and then sell them. A team of three men, he said, would earn around 150 shekels ($40) per day.
And although the workers with their creaking donkey carts are visible to the Israeli soldiers monitoring the area from watchtowers, unmanned aerial drones, and other surveillance equipment, the shootings continue.
Fadi's cousin, Ahmad Toufiq Abu Hashish, was shot in the lower leg by Israeli soldiers while collecting gravel on 13 October. In an interview in his family's Bedouin-type encampment on the edge of the exclusion zone, said the incident took place at 6 a.m., around 600 meters from the border.
"They fired just one shot. It wasn't a warning shot; it was a shot in my leg," he said. His cousin, Fadi, who was working with him that morning, confirmed that just one shot was fired.
As it's considered too dangerous for ambulances to venture into the border area, his brother and cousin laid him on their donkey cart, carrying him back to the Bedouin Village, where an ambulance transported him, unconscious, to Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Abu Hashish attended school until the 10th grade, and had been collecting scrap in the border area for about a month when he was shot. He said he earned about 30 shekels a day.
Physicians at Kamal Edwan informed him that his bones were shattered. After spending 20 days completely immobile in his family's camp, he is to return to the hospital to see if the leg has healed enough to install a prosthesis.
He told Ma'an that once his leg heals, he'll have no choice but to return to collecting gravel: "I have to go back. There's no work."
Asked why he thought Israelis shot him, he said, "Really, I don't know."
While Ahmad gave his testimony, lying on a blanket on the dirt floor of the tent, the sound of gunfire and exploding tank shells could be heard, coming from the border area.
Information gathered by aid agencies, the UN, rights groups, shows that Ahmad Abu Hashish's story is far from unique.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, eight Palestinians, all civilians, were shot by Israelis soldiers along the border in September alone. Six of these were workers collecting construction scrap. In a separate incident in the border area, Israeli tank shells killed a 91-year-old shepherd, and two boys, aged 16 and 17.
Bassam Masri, head of orthopedics at the Kamal Edwan hospital, told the British newspaper The Guardian earlier in October that around 50 people have been treated for gunshot wounds suffered in or near the buffer zone while collecting rubble in the past three months.
The Israeli military has publicly declared a 300-meter no-go zone on the Gaza side of the Green Line, but a UN study released in August, based on more than 100 interviews, shows that "Since late 2008, Palestinians have been totally or partially prevented from accessing land located up to 1,000-1,500 meters from the Green Line (depending on the specific area)."
These restrictions mean that 17 percent of the total land area of the already tiny Gaza Strip, and 35 percent of its agricultural land, is off-limits to Palestinian use. This in turn has contributed to a variety of humanitarian problems, further damaging the economy and directly affecting more than 113,000 people who live or work in or near the border.
Confusion about the boundaries of the exclusion zone persists. "Despite the potential for civilian casualties, the Israeli authorities have not informed the affected population about the precise boundaries of the restricted areas and the conditions under which access to these areas may be permitted or denied.
Regardless of the actual size of the buffer zone, rights advocates say the ongoing shootings of civilians are unacceptable.
Mahmoud Abu Rahma of the Al-Mezan Center for Human rights told Ma'an: "Even if the Israelis announce a 300-meter buffer zone, people who go there in the daylight, and who do not appear to be a threat to the soldiers guarding the border fence, then there is no reason to shoot them."
"Shooting unarmed civilians who are only doing work is illegal under international law," Abu Rahma added.
Al-Mezan, along with the Israeli groups Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights, is preparing to demand that Israeli authorities investigate these shootings.
But, based on past experience dealing with the Israeli government, Abu Rahma noted, "we don%u2019t have high hopes, but these are the tools available to us."
"As long as construction materials are not allowed in Gaza these people will continue to collect this scrap. We need some kind of protection for them," he also said.
In response to an inquiry from Ma'an, the Israeli military sent the following statement: "In light of the attempts of terrorist organizations to execute terrorist attacks around the security fence, in 2008 the IDF declared a buffer zone extending 300 meters west of the fence that would be closed to the Palestinian population. The IDF distributed leaflets written in Arabic, warning residents not to approach the fence."
"It is important to stress that the IDF acts in order to prevent harm to civilian populations in its operations and any complaint expressed regarding its soldiers' conduct will be taken into consideration and examined according to the existing policy, which it has declared repeatedly in the past."
"Since the beginning of 2010, 60 incidents of small arms shooting towards IDF forces, 34 incidents of improvised explosive device (IED) plantings, and 15 incidents of anti-tank missile fire were documented. A prominent incident is one in which an IDF officer, Maj. Eliraz Peretz, and soldier, Staff Sgt. Ilan Saviatkovski, were killed, and additional two soldiers were wounded, in an encounter with militants south of Kisufim crossing."
The military did not respond to a specific question asking why Palestinian civilians were shot when they were outside the 300-meter zone.
By Jared Malsin
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=329481 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 31 oct 2010
Report: Israeli soldiers kill 3, injure dozens in October in Gaza Strip
GAZA, (PIC)-- A report issued by Gaza Strip medical services documented dozens of Palestinian deaths and injuries at the hands of Israeli occupation forces in the month of October, 2010.
The report issued Sunday said Israeli troops launched three aerial raids on various areas of the Strip, killing two and injuring ten. The murder victims were identified as
Mahmoud Jabir Washah, 21, and
Mohammed Hisham Zaqout, 22.
Israeli soldiers fired a number of artillery shells at several locations in the Gaza Strip targeting farmlands and private homes one of which Jihad Subhi Afana, 20, in east Jibalia.
The report showed an increase in attacks against workers collecting gravel in northern Gaza during the past month, which saw the highest rate of injuries as compared to previous months. 61 worker injuries and two deaths were reported since February, 2009. 11 of those injuries, half of them children, took place in October.
Three Palestinians were killed and ten others sustained cases of suffocation while delivering food and other goods into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels.
The report concluded that the continued full-fledged siege on the Strip, deliberate targeting of civilians, and denial of humanitarian principles call for immediate action by concerned authorities.
http://bit.ly/b5x0cm 28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 31 oct 2010
Mahmoud Jabir Washah, 21
Mohammed Hisham Zaqout, 22.
28 apr 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 1 nov 2010
International Solidarity Campaign: Seven Killed and 250 Imprisoned in October
Nablus PNN - The International Solidarity Campaign said in its monthly report that seven Palestinian civilians had been killed on Palestinian land in the month of October, four from the West Bank and three from the Gaza Strip.
Four of those killed in the West Bank were workers trying to cross into Israel: Izz al-Din Saleh Abdulkarim al-Kawazbeh of Hebron, 37, Shahadeh Karjeh of Hebron, age unknown, Nishat al-Karmi of Tulkarem, 33, and Ma'mun al-Natsheh of Hebron, 25. Al-Natsheh was affiliated with Hamas.
Those killed in Gaza were the victims of extrajudicial killings carried out by airstrike. They were Muhammad Hisham Zaqut, 25, Muhammad Jaber Washeh, 21, both of Sudanese origin, and Jihad Sabahi Afaneh, 20, of Gaza City.
According to the report, Israeli forces have carried out a campaign of detainment in October that rounded up more than 250 citizens, including one incident at an internal crossing in which 10 people were detained. Among the detainees were 70 children, all under the age of 18 and mostly from Silwan. These arrests were mostly carried out by musta'arabeen, or police officers dressed up as Arabs.
More than 560 Palestinian workers were arrested on the Palestinian side of the Green Line last month for not having work permits.
The ISC called on other international human rights organizations to intervene on legal and moral grounds.
http://bit.ly/bwrl5o